LOL - brake performance, like most of the rest of anything to do with a car, is highly subjective and almost always referential. "The brakes are great!" can mean anything from 'they stop the car eventually' to 'I can easily modulate them while trail braking into the slightly off-camber turn 2 at Road Atlanta while on worn tires' to 'these brakes are a helluva lot better than the brakes in my truck.' "The brakes are horrible" can also mean 'they stop the car eventually'. In the end all that really matters is that DET's getting the brake set up he wants on the car.

While I'm waiting for a TASCA parts order to deliver, decided to fit check my do88 intercooler.

Once again, my anal OCD kicked in, so I cleaned up the front core support prior to the supposed "drop in" fitment of the do88. Here is the front clip sporting the new FMIC:

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Top fastener points to attach to the radiator nearly line up.... but it needs to shift just a bit to the PASS. side for 100%. Here you can see the slight obstacle which will be relieved to get the FMIC lined up dead nuts:

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A dremel will make quick work of that lip, and a bit of touch up paint she'll be good to go. I'll tell you what, this cooler had better make more POWER because it has got to weigh 20# more than the OE unit! I know that do88 certainly optimized the fitment; that is, they didn't leave any room and consumed it all. The data sheets on Eurosport TUNING claim a nice temperature reduction and a significant flow advantage (pressure drop across the cooler) with this piece. Couple pics here showing the contact between the FMIC tanks and the radiator:

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I've been studying how to route an extra trans. oil cooler and mount with this stack of heat exchangers. The only sensible path is going to require hoses, and pass thru the core support just below the do88 inlet port. No way to use hard lines with this setup. I'm investigating a 960 external trans. cooler as an option; if that doesn't work then likely aftermarket.

OK, as I've got the IPD blue sports sold, and in preparation of the front brake upgrades, a couple pics of the "as found". Bone stock size front rotors, calipers, and the Zimmermann vented rotors which have served well the last ~ 5 years / 20K miles of DD-dom:

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GilRacing spacers (25mm) will be removed prior to pulling the struts. Here they hang in baited anticipation:

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Whilst I'm in here, and considering this is essentially the last waltz with this vehicle, I was cajoled by gsellstr to convert to these BNE Select parts:

Not much time lately due to work demands, but I'm setting up to install the BNE Select adjustable strut mounts. These will work with standard spring diameters or coil overs.

I wanted to compare my original top hats which were "camber modded" so to see where I should start to install these mounts. I moved the stock bolt position ~ 23mm, and had some serious negative camber as a result. Here you see them side by side:

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In order to use the stock upper bearing from the 7/9 and the stock top spring seat, you need to tap into place (nice tight fight) these adapter sleeves, which will receive the OEM bearing. Hopefully you can see these parts which have been assembled:

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Last, here are the pair of BNE select mounts, with his carriage bolts shown roughly positioned to match my original parts. The low cost of these parts ($200) provides the function, but you give up the ease of adjustment in position. It seems to me that to make fine adjustments of camber & caster, will require almost a disassembly to free up the spring so the mount can be adjusted. Hopefully I get it close enough with the initial install and don't require a lot of repetition to hit the targets. Here they are:

After 2 days of house painting I finally carved out some hours to install the B&G springs/struts and the BNE Select top adjustable mounts. We start with the requisite McPherson spring compressors roughed onto 3 coils of spring:

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Here is the front B&G progressive PN, fits 7/9 and 960s (early):

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Using my super-duper 3/8in Homer Depot air ratchet I collapse the 3 bottom most coils. Note the 1/2inch 300# pipe couplings as spacers on the spring compressors..... if you don't use something here the top ends of the acme threads will be pushing against your strut towers. These are dirt cheap at HD/Lowes, and get it done:

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Since Ben Kaplan refuses to create/provide installation instruction (boxfullofparts.BNE.com) I shot him an email, and he informed me this is the proper orientation of the washer (with tapered bore to match the strut shaft) and the sleeve which spins inside his top mount spherical bearing.

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After a first attempt which wasn't going well, I decided to revise the tactic I've always used. Pulled the BNE mount back out and PRE-assembled into position (with the spring compressed). This turned out to be easier than trying to fit the spring top plate/original bearing together while releasing the springs. Here the whole shebang is, ready to raise into place:

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Look close and you see the black & yellow top bearing from the original setup (this part sourced from IPD, the "better"). And SUCCESS!

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How sweet it is! I positioned the BNE Select mounts to the "maximum caster & camber" position by eyeball..... and torqued the carriage bolts he supplies to locate the top mount. Gsellstr swears by these parts, and convinced me to shell out the $200 for them. Aside from adjustment ability, the improved steering feel he found as the big improvements. It will be awhile before I finalize alignment numbers with my FASTRAX tool, but I'm looking forward to the benefits.

Is it possible to adjust mounts without compressing the spring? and did you get more camber than with the modified original mount?

Unknown at this point. What I DID do was with the front suspension at full droop, AND with the strut spring compressors just compressing the bottom 3 coils (each side) the top of the spring was completely unloaded.... movement was easy with just the BNE carriage bolts 1/4 turn from "snug". This is the cost of the savings of the BNE Select mounts; I plan to set it and forget it, once I get the readings. If you want to drive your car to an Auto-X event, change setup & race, then restore and drive home..... I'd buy his Full Monte setup.

Unknown at this point. What I DID do was with the front suspension at full droop, AND with the strut spring compressors just compressing the bottom 3 coils (each side) the top of the spring was completely unloaded.... movement was easy with just the BNE carriage bolts 1/4 turn from "snug". This is the cost of the savings of the BNE Select mounts; I plan to set it and forget it, once I get the readings. If you want to drive your car to an Auto-X event, change setup & race, then restore and drive home..... I'd buy his Full Monte setup.

thanks. I was thinking more to how easy they would be to adjust to get the camber similar on both sides. With the fully adjustable mounts it will not be possible to use the original bearing, which I would like for comfort on my daily driver. The BNE select mounts seems better. interested to see what angles you get. BTW nice project

Had a bit of free time last week and began fit checking the 302mm front brake upgrade.

With all the stock bits removed, I bolted up the Zimmermann vented rotors (in the back pages of the FCPEuro offerings) and then attempted to bolt up the SKANDIX adapter abutment brackets (for mounting the 850 Calipers). Of course the rotors fit perfectly:

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Well the brackets almost fit... but "fouled" on the ABS pulse wheel. Apparently the target audience for these in Europa are on pre-ABS vehicles. Here you can see the ABS signal wheel with the square tooth pattern:

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Note the spacer sleeves on the inboard side. When attempting to install the fastening bolts, the 2nd one won't make up by ~ 3mm I would guess. There were no deformities in the SKANDIX caliper mounts (abutment brackets) so they obviously were made to the print.... they just don't clear the ABS wheel. Well, it's either give up or MAKE THEM WORK. Taking the obvious choice I made some "relief mods" to delete just enough metal to allow them to clear the ABS wheel.

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Hated to grind away new metal.... and now I've got to seal up the bare steel on a factory fresh zinc chromate finish Oh well, the things we must do for performance! I don't believe I've (significantly) weakened these mounts, if you look at how the reactions are transferred to the strut tube ears (do a FREE BODY DIAGRAM in your mind). Confirmed the pass. side will likewise require a similar relief for clearance Clarence. Got to keep the improvements moving..... hopefully much more to show soon.

thanks. I was thinking more to how easy they would be to adjust to get the camber similar on both sides. With the fully adjustable mounts it will not be possible to use the original bearing, which I would like for comfort on my daily driver. The BNE select mounts seems better. interested to see what angles you get. BTW nice project

The fully adjustable mounts are compatible with the original bearing as well.

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Originally Posted by skjarlie

Is it possible to adjust mounts without compressing the spring? and did you get more camber than with the modified original mount?

There should be no reason why you would need to compress the spring to adjust the mount, you do need to take the load off the corner as the friction between the tower and the mount will be too high with the corner load being applied. More camber and caster is possible with these over modded stock mounts as the bearing is more offset

The fully adjustable mounts are compatible with the original bearing as well.

There should be no reason why you would need to compress the spring to adjust the mount, you do need to take the load off the corner as the friction between the tower and the mount will be too high with the corner load being applied. More camber and caster is possible with these over modded stock mounts as the bearing is more offset

There should be no reason why you would need to compress the spring to adjust the mount, you do need to take the load off the corner as the friction between the tower and the mount will be too high with the corner load being applied. More camber and caster is possible with these over modded stock mounts as the bearing is more offset

In my case, the BNE select mount moved with much less force with the spring mostly unloaded. Could it still be done loaded? Sure, anything is possible..... with enough leverage! Control the energy, and make it easy on yourself.

Regarding MORE CAMBER & CASTER being possible, I didn't find that to be true. My original modified stock mount (which I marked to the strut tower opening before removal) had MORE CAMBER than I was able to get in the set of slots with the BNE mount. Any adjustment you make is "bolt bound" at a point.... and I think I was there for the particular set of slots I chose. However while I lost a bit of camber, I gained a bit more caster. Calling it good enough until I get my FASTRAX installed to see what I got. I'll plan to document those measures with pics in this last hurrah thread for the 940.

On sealing up the bare steel -- that'll all be coated with brake dust in a very short while and if it's where I think it is, you can't see it. Little bit of paint on a brush....whatever color you like as long as it's black.

Yes indeedy.... it will get the paint brush "exterior black" treatment. Can't see it in position, and I'm sure it will get pretty warm in service so no rustproofing type materials.

I think I forgot to add this picture earlier..... my 95~98 BOSCH servo/booster installed. Came from a 125K mile donor, barely broken in! We'll revisit this guy when time comes to power bleed the entire system:

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Reminds me..... I need to purchase new vacuum hose to supply that booster with. NAPA or OEM? Cheaper by the foot I'm sure.